The Best Way to Communicate with Your Employees

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I get this complaint from managers a lot: "Marcel, my employees seem to be lacking motivation. What's the solution?"

The answer is always the same and in the form of a question: "How frequently do you communicate with them about their goals?"

Gallup's extensive employee engagement research that spans several decades found that not having clear goals and expectations is one of the top five reasons employees are disengaged. Worse, it's why so many leave their managers. 

It's rather ironic because one of the most consistent ways to inspire and motivate people is to do just that -- clarify goals and expectations and keep people abreast of those goals over time.

As we quickly learned during the pandemic, things change -- and fast. When they do, good leaders don't leave people in the dark. So, my questions to you are: Do your people consistently know what is really going on? Do they know what is expected of them at work?

Breaking The Cycle

The best solution to make consistent, clear goals and expectations an operational reality is through an often-ignored, old-school technique: one-on-one conversations.

Nothing earth-shattering, right? But here's the truth: Nothing influences motivation more than a manager's relationship with their workers. But if the prospect of more communication and more meetings makes you cringe, the role of leadership may not be your cup of tea. Here’s what I mean: Good leaders thrive when they strengthen relationships with their people by spending more time with them, not less.

I know what some of you may be thinking: I'm already going from one remote meeting to another. I'm all over my Slack or Microsoft Teams channels, emailing and texting…isn’t that why we’re using technology–to avoid more meetings? Furthermore, you may be saying I don’t have the time to add more meetings to my schedule–I have ten employees reporting to me!

These are valid complaints. We don’t want to add unnecessary meetings to our schedule. That said, let me bring you back to a quick lesson about the essence of good leadership.

Back to the basics

Leadership is about engaging people on an emotional and intellectual level. 

Read that again. 👆

Making this work for you takes the human-to-human component that text-based technology cannot replicate. 

According to neuroscience, even video interactions don’t measure up to being face-to-face in a room together. That may not be possible anymore if you’re 100 percent remote. However, please know that humans are wired in their genetic code for connection in ways that virtual environments cannot fully replicate. Studies in neuroscience all say that the physiological response in the brain is simply not the same as it would be face-to-face. 

The one-on-one meeting 

This brings us back to the one-on-one meeting and its importance for fostering strong relationships between managers and their team members. The mistake so often made is to use it to address immediate issues, put out a fire, or pull someone aside for a reprimand. When employees are called to an unexpected one-on-one, they sense something's up and start worrying. What if we flipped the script on the one-on-one meeting and used it to motivate, inspire, engage, and, ultimately, build trust?

Spending quality one-on-one time with your direct reports takes a bit of a science, and the good news is that they actually become time savers when done right. However, you need to know how to structure them so that they work to your advantage. I'll leave you with some next steps below and hopefully encourage you to take action.

Question for my readers: Do you find one-on-ones effective in your leadership role? Why or why not?

Get Coached: Structuring a one-on-one meeting requires skills. I’m giving my Implementer Community the steps to make them productive and effective (in 15 minutes or less). Join here to get the steps and unlock Implementer Access. You’ll also have direct access to me for fast action and questions, plus all the leadership tools and strategies in my archives.

About Marcel Schwantes

Marcel Schwantes is an international speaker, executive coach, podcast host, author, and syndicated columnist who attracts over 2 million readers monthly to his thought leadership. Marcel has been recognized by Inspiring Workplaces as one of the Top 101 Global Employee Engagement & Experience Influencers, along with Josh Bersin, Amy Edmondson, and Adam Grant.